Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/262

 need her own dresses, lingerie, and books; but the incident was an encouraging one, suggesting that the Imp was not all bad. She might have, must have, redeeming qualities.

The correctness of this view was demonstrated as the weeks went by. During the most exciting days the quiet community had known in years, the nuns added to their store of information concerning the nature and characteristics of Mercedes Centi. It was a difficult lesson they were learning, for the experience of each day upset the carefully formed theories based on that of the day before. But out of it all, in the end, one truth loomed large. Never in the history of St. Mary's had so bad a little girl been sheltered in its walls—and never in the history of the world had a bad little girl shown so many fascinating qualities. These latter glowed tenderly, like a rainbow after a storm, but, unlike that curve of promise, they had no fixed time for their appearance, nor were they subject to any law. The manners of Mercedes, when she chose to be good, were those to make one weep with joy. Her generosity was proverbial; she scorned a lie; she loved animals; she was the friend of all helpless things—except her teachers! For the rest, there were periods when for weeks the Imp went about like a small human